'Green' boost for energy bills

Green measures like insulating homes and using energy efficient boilers are helping to lower fuel bills, according to a new government report. The Energy Secretary Ed Davey said he expects such measures to have a larger impact over time.

Unite has called on the government to introduce an immediate cap on excessive executive pay which was “an insult to millions of working people living through the worst recession in a generation and the worst March weather in 50 years.”

Enough is enough – this excessive greed which sees casino bankers and the corporate elite running British business pocket millions, while working people struggle to pay their soaring household bills must stop.

As Britain goes through the worst March weather in half a century, the sun shines brightly on Centrica’s bosses while those struggling to pay the bills shiver.

British Gas is making huge profits, but an increasingly number of people are faced with fuel poverty, where more than 10% of their income goes on fuel costs.

The government, presided over by the Bullingdon duo of Cameron and Osborne, is squeezing the life out of people's living standards and is immune to the daily struggle of ordinary people. They either don’t care or are too weak to act on the excessive executive pay which is being made off the back soaring fuel bills and hard pressed customers.

A report from the Department for Energy and Climate Change (DECC) says that 85% of the rise in household bills between 2010 and 2012 was from wholesale energy costs and network costs, and 15% as a result of government policies.

Caroline Flint has launched a strong attack on the government. Credit: David Jones/PA Archive/Press Association Images

Caroline Flint, shadow energy and climate change secretary, has launched a stinging attack on the government over its energy-saving policies.

She said: "The government's underhand attempt to mask the real impact of its policies on families' energy bills is shameful.

"At a time when hard-pressed families and pensioners are seeing their incomes squeezed, only this out-of-touch government could expect people to fork out thousands of pounds on new TVs, fridge freezers and washing machines.

"Instead of cooking the books to trick people into thinking their energy bills will be lower, ministers should get behind Labour's plans to overhaul the energy market and deliver fair prices for the public."

Energy and Climate Change Secretary Ed Davey said the government's energy-reducing policies are "putting a cushion" between global energy prices and bills.

He said: "Global gas price hikes are squeezing households.

"They are beyond any government's control and, by all serious predictions, are likely to continue rising.

"We are doing all we can to offset these global energy price rises, and while we have more to do, this new study shows our policies are putting a cushion between global prices and the bills we all pay."